The Mongolian invasion of Western Europe was a significant historical event mainly because it brought Europe’s attention to the rapidly expanding kingdom of Genghis Khan. The Tartars as the Europeans referred to them presented a threat mainly because they were becoming too difficult to manage and were slowly advancing to parts of Central Europe. Many accounts and literature surfaced as Europe needed to know this enemy that was slowly advancing. One of the most famous accounts of the Mongolians was written by Giovanni Carpini. Sent by Pope Innocent IV Giovanni had the important task of converting the Khan to Christianity as well learning all he could about the Mongols after which he would take back the information to the Europeans. Pope Innocent IV was responding to the massive Christian killings that had taken place in Western Europe and the need to address the new threat which was the Mongols.
In his mission Giovanni was to account for everything and this he did through the literature referred to as “History of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars.” His manuscripts were very essential on educating the Europeans about the Mongol culture which they knew little about. He covered important social political and economical aspects of the Tartars as well as their religious beliefs and practices; he even went ahead to try and construct the genealogy of the Khans . The Europeans held various beliefs of the Mongols which were not entirely true as Giovanni pointed out. Thus, his works were very important for Europe and especially for history. The paper analyzes his book concerning his perspectives possible biasness and instances of his preconceptions about the Mongolian kingdom and how he addressed these issues in his book.
European Myths about the Mongols
Before they invaded Europe little was known about the Mongols, in fact the Europeans had many misconceptions about the